Development Practitioner Seminar Series

The DPS is a seminar series hosted by Graduate School during the spring semester. Development practitioners are invited to share their expertise and experiences from specific organisations and fields. Find out more about life after studies, build up your professional network, and link theory to practice!

May 10: Roi Silberberg, Peace Educator, Director of School of Peace – Neve Shalom, Founder and Co-Director of the Association for the Promotion of Spoken Arabic in Israel, Educator & Group Facilitator, The Association for Civil Rights in Israel

"Peace Education in a Conflictual Context"

The seminar would focus on facilitating social change in a poisonous political environment. For the last 40 years, the School for Peace has been conducting dialogue meetings between Jews and Palestinians under the assumption that only honest and straight forward dialogue would change the relations between Jews and Palestinians. This challenge grows bigger as the political reality changes, and racism and mistrust grow stronger. In the last years we began to understand that dialogue is not enough. Every program that brings Jews and Palestinians together should also include a component of action - a joint initiative of the participants aimed at changing the social reality. Combining honest dialogue with a shared (Jewish-Palestinian) action is a challenging and sometimes contradicting attempt which yields surprising results.

Dr. Roi Silberberg is a political educator, working in the field of social change, peace education and inter-group dialogue in Israel/Palestine. He has been involved in this field since 2004 and experienced challenges, complexities, and even some successes.

Matilda leads the European Women's Lobby's Women in Decision-making campaigns – aiming to put women at the heart of decision making in politics and business. Together with EWL members she designs EWL’s campaign for the 2019 European Parliament Elections. Before joining EWL, Matilda led the successful civil society campaign for UN Security Council Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security at UNOY Peacebuilders. She is a member of the UN Advisory Group of Experts for the Progress Study on Youth, Peace and Security. Matilda holds an MA in Development Studies - from the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, the Netherlands. She is originally Finnish, but have spent the last seven years in the Netherlands.

Matilda will talk about the UN-advocacy campaign she led, and about the role of European civil society in building a Europe that works for its citizens.

Venue: M123

Time: 13.15-15

February 20: Nela Porobic, Project Coordinator, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Sarajevo

"Women, peace and security – a peek into practical experiences of activism for women’s rights and gender justice in conflict and post conflict countries."

Nela Porobic will, based on her current and previous experiences in the field of transitional justice, peace building, and women’s human rights, talk about her professional and personal experiences in engaging with women activists from Bosnia and Syria, as well as countries such as Ukraine and Iraq. She will talk about how women’s struggle to gain access “to the table” looks like beyond UN Security Council Resolutions on women, peace and security, and what it takes from the broad range of actors (civil society, governmental bodies, UN agencies, individual countries) to overcome the gap between the global aspirations to include women in peace building and the actual levels of inclusions of women.

Nela holds an MA in political science from University of Lund and has for past ten years worked with variety of international organizations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, from Office of the High Representative, to UN agencies such as UNDP and UNFPA. Her current work is with Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) where she works on feminist analysis of the Bosnian peace process and the outcomes of the different interventions as part of peacebuilding efforts. WILPF-led initiative in Bosnia, Women Organizing for Change (more info: http://womenorganizingforchange.org/en/), is conducted in partnership with local women organizations and activists. The outcomes of this work are continuously shared with women’s organizations in other post conflict and conflict countries.

March 27: Marie Bengtsson, Ph.D in Political Science from Lund University; Expert, Swedish Migration Agency, Section for Operational Control and Coordination National coordinator, Swedish National Contact Point to the European Migration Network; Co-chair, European Migration Network

"To be a Swedish civil servant in the European migration context"

Marie obtained her Ph.D. with a dissertation on central – local government relations within the migration area at Lund University in 2002. She worked as a lecturer at the Department of Political Science and began working for the Swedish Migration Agency in 2005. Since 2008 she has been working as a national coordinator for the Swedish national as contact point to the European Migration Network (EMN). The EMN provides objective, up-to-date, relevant and comparable information on Migration to Europe by producing studies, responding to ad-hoc queries and analysing the information to make it useful for policy makers both at European and national level. This line of work means quite a lot of travelling, mostly to Brussels but also to other capitals of the EU member states, and professional and personal relations with colleagues from all over Europe.

The lecture will focus first and foremost on what it is like to be a Swedish civil servant in the European migration context and what it takes to cooperate with migration experts from 27 other countries. Secondly what happened within the migration field during 2015 will be discussed together with different priorities at EU and Member state level and how they develop and influence the work of the EMN.

"Doing things right or doing the right things? : Quality and learning in disaster response and post-conflict recovery programmes"

Liesbeth-Marije Hoogland (MA International Relations and Humanitarian Action) is a professional in the field of disaster response, post-conflict recovery and development programming in Africa and the Middle East. She has worked for more than 10 years in the sector and has encountered different challenges, dilemmas and learning opportunities.

The seminar will focus on quality and learning of programmes in complex disaster and post-conflict recovery settings in particular. The seminar starts with a brief overview of quality standards and Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning processes in Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) working in disaster response and recovery. Accordingly, the use of these standards and processes in practice will be discussed. To what extent are they influenced by donors, tax payers and trends? What role do the so-called beneficiaries of NGO programmes play in these processes? How does the NGO sector learn in dynamic (post-conflict) situations full of dilemmas? (How) do they ensure the people they serve remain the first priority? Liesbeth-Marije will share main learning outcomes from her field experience. Naturally there will be space for questions about the sector as well as about her personal career and life in the field.

Secil Coker is Dutch of Turkish origins and received her MA degree in European Studies from the University of Amsterdam. She started her career working in the European Parliament, subsequently joined the UN refugee Agency (UNHCR) and is now working at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. Her talk will focus on her career path from working at UNHCR to her current position at the ICC.

"Global governance and emerging economies - new avenues of cooperation"

Daniel Taras will illustrate on the basis of his past and current work how western donors are redefining their approach to cooperating with and in emerging economies. In doing so, he will provide practical insights on how he and his global team set up the Economic Policy Forum (www.economic-policy-forum.org), a platform of leading political economy think tanks, which jointly produce policy recommendations for global governance processes, such as the BRICS summit, the G20, or the climate change negotiations.

Priti Darooka, Founder and Executive Director of PWESCR (Programme on Women's Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), New Delhi and the Netherlands

Priti will talk about her engagement and work with the PWESCR (http://www.pwescr.org/aboutus.html), and reflect upon her own career choices and experiences within the field. Priti holds a Master’s Degree in Women’s Studies from the US, and has previously worked at the Ford Foundation, UNIFEM (now UN Women), as well as several community based organisations.

Madelene Eichhorn, previously worked as M&E offer with UNAIDS Cambodia

Madelene Eichhorn will guide us through the field of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) within the sector of international development cooperation. She will give a theoretical introduction to M&E and will also draw upon her practical experience working with M&E of the Multi-Sectoral Response to HIV and AIDS, with UNAIDS in Cambodia. During the presentation Madelene will provide practical tips on tools for working with M&E as well as desired experience and qualifications of practitioners.

Small steps - what claiming women’s Human Rights actually looks like in Kenya, South Africa and India…

Eva Schmitz is a Senior Policy Advisor and Project Manager for the Dutch development and environmental NGO, Both ENDS. The main focus of her work lies in tackling the social and environmental impacts connected to the production of large-scale agricultural commodities, infrastructure projects and extractives. Although also working with certification organisations, companies and financial institutions, her main efforts go towards supporting affected communities in the defending of their land and claiming of their rights.

For this lecture Eva will talk about the dilemmas facing local CSOs and international NGOs working on issues of gender and human rights. The Human Rights to Food, Water and to a Healthy Environment are internationally accepted and have been ratified by many nations. Yet what does this mean in reality for people living far away from the UN headquarters in New York? The global the run on natural resources puts communities dependent on these resources under immense pressure, with women suffering disproportionally from the negative impacts. Eva has been working with women’s groups in Kenya, South Africa and India to support them in claiming their rights. While this is challenging enough, engaging women in patriarchal societies brings its own pitfalls. Question arise such as, do women who struggle to survive even have time to claim their rights? Will their husbands and fathers react violently? Is the gender focus a Western point of view? How does one bring the men into the fight for women’s rights?

The speaker looks forward to engaging the students in a lively debate about some of the real dilemmas which arise from development work in practice.

Fernanda Drumond works as Project Manager at Gapminder Foundation in Stockholm. Fernanda runs the Dollar Street project, a visual framework for understanding different standards of living within and between countries. By combining documentary photos and income statistics, Dollar Street shows a fact-based worldview that cannot be found anywhere else. Fernanda has a bachelor's degree in International Relations from Brazil and a master's degree in Development Studies from Lund University. She's worked in the corporate and academic sectors in USA, Brazil, India and Nepal, and now is working for the non-profit sector in Sweden. Apart from working for Gapminder, she dedicates her time to Yuwalaya, a Youth Resource Center implemented in Nepal through ABC Sweden (NGO).

Silja Emmel works as Head of Section in International Consulting at Statistics Denmark, or as Deputy Project Leader in statistical capacity building projects as she clarifies it herself. She works in a team of three people with responsibility for winning and implementing projects. Once won, she designs a work plan, coordinates with project partners and experts, monitors the implementation and provides reports to donors (mainly the EU and the World Bank). Her background is in Political Science and in Development Studies, also from Lund University. Prior to her current position, she has been active in NGOs in Denmark and in Germany, focusing on Southern Africa and land rights. She also teaches intercultural communication for staff at Statistics Denmark, building on her experiences.

"Is it possible to live as you teach? - Challenges and opportunities in being a leader in a value-based organization in today's world"

Ulrika Jerre has a PhD in Political Science from LU and has worked for IM Swedish Development Partner since 2005 in various positions in Sweden and abroad. Since 2011 she is the Head of the International Department. She will talk about value based leadership and challenges and opportunities in being a manager in an INGO in the development sector.

Panel on Traineeships: "Development Work in Different (Developing) Contexts"

Linete Roque Andersson- "My internship is in Lichinga, in the northern part of Mozambique for an organization that is called ROADS. Translated the name stands for "Network of organizations for a better environment and susteinable development. My area during my six months here in Lichinga is "Gender maistreaming in susteinable development" and the specifics tasks are about working together with programme officers and the coordinator in Gender mainstreaming and support the elaboration of the organisation's Gender policy. At this moment I spent a lot of my time attempting to contextualize the situation, that is together with my collegues identify what are the main challenges when it comes to Gender here in Lichinga. When trying to understand the context I do everything from reading reports about different projects to see what and how has been said about gender or if it is mentioned at all field meetings to get a better understanding of how the reality looks like. We also talk about perceptions that exists in our society about the different sexes and have an open conversation in schools with children from twelve to fifteen years old."

Tanja Dittfeld- "My internship is in Lusaka, Zambia, with the NGO Civic Forum on Housing and Habitat (CFHH). CFHH is a national network of civil society and community organizations involved in Housing and Habitat issues in Zambia. CFHH aims at creating a strong platform for dialogue, lobbying and advocating for pro-poor legislative and institutional environment to address the country’s rapid urbanisation and human settlement development challenges. CFHH's mission is to ensure decent, affordable and adequate housing for all in Zambia. My main task is to ensure HIV/AIDS and gender mainstreaming in all stages of planning, coordinating and implementing CFHH's activities. A big part of my work centers around conducting workshops and trainings focused on the nexus between housing, gender and HIV/AIDS in 5 very disadvantaged communities (emerging housing cooperatives) that CFHH work with."

Ludwig Perman –“My internship is in Kampala, Uganda, at an organization called Shelter and Settlements Alternatives, mainly working to improve the living conditions for the people living in slum areas in Uganda, but also working with gender issues and research on HIV/AIDS. Shelter and Settlements Alternatives is an umbrella organization for Ugandan NGOs in the field of adequate housing with approximately 12 people working in its office in Kampala. I work as Information and Advocacy Officer in the Communications Team. My duties include: carrying out visits to slum areas and documenting the situation; post articles and updates to website and social media; assist in the organization of various events; create educational materials such as brochures, flyers and newsletters; create graphic materials such as banners and roll-ups; network with other partners in the housing sector. Our work focuses predominantly on lobbying efforts towards politicians, private enterprises and other stakeholders. The Ugandan population is as of 2015 approximately 38 million, but in just 20 years it is expected to have risen to somewhere around 68 million. Given these projections, and the fact that the country is already suffering from a housing backlog and is undergoing an urbanization process, the issue of building affordable and sustainable houses of adequate size is absolutely critical for the country to cope with its ongoing population growth. However, the problem in Uganda regarding shelter and housing is not limited to a lack of houses but it's also a matter of the quality of the houses. As more and more people are moving into the cities, and the government mostly leaving it up to private actors to respond to the demand, the slum areas are increasing in size and population. The private actors mostly build more expensive houses for middle to high-income earners leaving the low-income earners to fend for themselves. This leads low-income earners to put up shacks in slum areas where the crime rate is high, sanitation is poor, where access to clean water is scarce, and where the likelihood of catching various diseases is higher than in other urban areas.”

Ronja Pe- “My internship is in Asunción, Paraguay, at “Demoinfo”, an organization working with the freedom of expression in one of the few countries in the Americas that still lack statutory legislation guaranteeing such rights. Through the telecommunications law of 2011, the major media is controlled and censured by the state while smaller community radio stations’ broadcasting power is limited to 50 watts and self-financing, advertisements prohibited. Paraguay is currently facing one of the worlds most rapid land grabbing and subsequent deforestation of the rainforests which results in the loss of important living space and resources for the indigenous peoples and local farmers. As the exploitation favors the elitist, right-wing government, the negative side effects are rarely presented in public media. Demoinfo aims to produce, gather and spread these lost voices via the community radio stations in the country.”

Roderick Besseling will talk about the need of more transparency and accountability in the international development sector and how Open Data and the International Aid Transparency Initiative have given the impetus for this change. He will share insights on the importance of working with a range of stakeholders when trying to solve complex problems. Roderick will also speak about what skills will be in demand in International Development 3.0.

Roderick has a background in humanitarianism, development and peace building. He has coordinated internaitonal donors and partners and has worked in several post-conflict and fragile-state environments. Roderick is seen as part of the new generation of creative and dynamic project managers who are keen to exploit technology to promote development and social change.

Zara is a disability rights campaigner from the UK who has worked locally, nationally and internationally on disability rights. Zara has a history of working in inclusive youth participation and frequently runs training sessions for disabled and non-disabled young people on human rights. She also does work with young disabled people so that they can input into research and policy at local national and European levels. She has recently been involved in shadow reporting for CEDAW and the CRPD. She also recently worked on a project looking at how the UNCRPD can be implemented in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Lebanon, Jordan and Ukraine. Zara has previously worked advising the UK government on disability policy. Zara is the Chair of a Deaf and disabled peoples organisation called Inclusion London and a director of a disabled and allied women’s collective called sisters of Frida.

Zara will be talking about her experiences of working at UK, European and international levels in disability and youth. She will explore the challenges and rewards of this field and get the audience to explore their own experiences and what you need to know to get on in this field.

Time: 2-4 pm

Place: House R236 (Gamla Kirurgen)

Feb 23rd 2015

Mr. Joshua Odhiambo Nyamori, Director at Abila Consultants, Kenya

Title of Presentation: Development Governance and Citizens' Participation

The presentation aims at inspiring participants to seriously consider pursuing development governance and policy work, especially in expansion of citizens’ space in the democratization of the developing world. Joshua Nyamori, based in Nairobi, has over 15 years of experience in working on fostering locally and internationally funded inclusive governmental and non-governmental development programmes in Kenya and has a broad range of specializations including governance, advocacy and lobby, resource, mobilization and organization development.

The presentation will focus on the emerging innovations on governance and citizens’ participation in development programmes. It will pay particular attention to a range of emerging innovative development institutional arrangements in Kenya, how these new institutional arrangements are interfacing with traditional state-centred forms of development policy-making. The presentation will show how this new innovative forms of participation are fermenting new state-citizen relationships in Kenya’s democratization process, at grassroots and national levels, and how this has rearticulated, in Kenya’s new constitution, the meaning and space of citizenship and, consequently, the nature of democracy in Kenya’s development policy making framework.

Joshua Nyamori will also lead a workshop on February 24th. Details on the workshop will be posted here in the coming weeks.

Time: 3-5 pm

Place: Världen (KEG, Sölvegatan 10, room 111)

March 9th 2015

Sarah Osman, Founder of Osman Advisory Services, Oslo, Norway

Title of presentation: Factors influencing programme implementation in development cooperation

Sarah Osman, born in Sudan, has been working in the development cooperation sector for eight years. She worked in different sectors, including migration and development, sexual and reproductive health and children’s rights. She is currently specialising in business, human rights law and corporate social responsibility.

The objective of Sarah’s talk is to trigger the participants’ thinking on what it is like to work for an NGO. Sarah’s talk will be interactive and will explore the ways in which the day-to-day implementation of development programmes is affected by foreign, national and donor policies. Using examples from her work, Sarah will explore some of the key challenges that NGOs face in delivering services to their target groups.

Time: 2-5 pm

Place: House R236 (Gamla Kirurgen)

March 23rd/24th 2015

Mr. Engel Tally, Researcher at FLACSO in Guatemala

Title of Presentation: Qualitative Research in Development Research and Practice

Engel holds master's degree in Philosophy from Universidad Rafael Landivar in Guatemala. In 2011, he obtained his second master's degree from the LUMID programme. He has been research consultant on projects related to social programmes, indigenous peoples and natural resources funded by the EU, the Inter American Development Bank, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFFRI), Sida, GIZ, Transparency International, Population Council, ChildFund International and Agronomist and Veterinaries Without Borders.

March 23rd 2015, 15:15 Världen

Engel will also hold a Nvivo workshop on Mar 24th, 9:00-17.15 (Room 212 at KEG). Nvivo is a qualitative data analysis (QDA) computer software package. There will be a two-hour break 13:00-15:15 (attend the introduction for SIMM23!).

Working title of presentation: The role of diaspora in state building, development and business

The seminar will focus on the fast re-emergence of diaspora in Somalia and the optimism this presents for Somali's post-conflict social, economic and political development. Abdihakim will discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the Somali government in devising a policy framework to embrace this new migration-development nexus. He will discuss the role of diaspora groups in post-conflict development and their role as new global emerging actors, the migration and development nexus, and the role of non-traditional donors like Turkey and UAE.

Abdihakim Ainte currently works as policy advisor for the Office of Diaspora Affairs (ODA) in Somalia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Prior to that, he has advised and worked with numerous international organisations in Somalia. He has conducted various studies commissioned by the World Bank, UN, and African Union on a wide range of subjects, including governance, peace and security, humanitarian development, diaspora and education. He holds a degree in Political Science and International Relations. He has published widely on Somalia and is a regular contributor to Royal African Society's multiblogging site, Africa Arguments Online.

Title of presentation: The UN Development System: Design, Implementation, Coordination, Governance and Change.

The seminar will briefly describe the UN Development System by looking at how it was originally designed, how it has evolved, including coordination mechanisms and governance structures. It will also review recent and current change initiatives and look at discussions taking place related to increasing the effectiveness of the UN Development System.

Ronny Lindström is currently working for the United Nations System Chief Executive Board, which supports the internal UN coordination function of the Secretary General. In his position he is responsible for the management of a trust fund established to support inter-agency UN reform and harmonization initiatives related to management for the UN system as a whole. Prior to this position, Mr. Lindstrom spent thirteen years with UNFPA (The UN Population Fund) where he held several different positions including being responsible for UN reform issues at UNFPA HQ in New York, he was the Deputy Representative, responsible for programmes and operations, in China, he was a Programme Officer in the Asia and Pacific Division, based in New York, providing support to Country Offices and was a Programme Officer based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, providing support to UNFPA Programmes in all Central Asian Republics. Prior to joining the UN System, Mr. Lindstrom lived in and worked as a teacher in Japan. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California where he also lectured at the under-graduate level.

Time: 14.15-16

Place: House R:236 (Gamla Kirurgen)

April 29th 2015

Ms. Shivani Khanna, Development and Disaster Risk Reduction expert

Title of presentation: Why all development practitioners need to be at the forefront of climate and disaster risks?

Disasters, including climate-related events, are increasing both in frequency and severity. They impacted communities in both developed and developing nations, undoing past development gains and challenging sustainable development opportunities. Poor, children, elderly and women often suffer the most. This session will focus on the power individual development practitioners have to either reduce or build disaster risk, through (in)action. Shivani Khanna will give practical examples on the opportunities to integrate the climate and disaster risk reduction in sustainable development. She will also share her own 'logical, yet unplanned' professional journey from an entry-level social worker to an international disaster risk reduction consultant.

Shivani has over 14 years of experience in community participation, programme management, and capacity development in disaster risk reduction. Shivani holds a MA in social work and a MSc in disaster management. She has worked in urban and rural contexts in Asia, Africa, Arab states and North America. Among the partners are UN agencies (OCHA, UNICEF, UNDP, CADRI, UNV, ECLAC), World Bank, Sida, MSB, IFRC, ProVention Consortium and the Sphere Project.

Time: 15:30-16:45

Place: Världen, Geocentrum I

May 18th 2015

Greta-Stina Engelbert, Health and Nutrition Expert, Sweden

Title of presentation: Experiences from working with Health and Nutrition in Mozambique.

Greta-Stina Engelbert will talk about her 18 years of experience from Mozambique, where she has been working in food Security Programs with a special focus on Training, Health and Nutrition. She will talk about the challenges and successes while working in different working environments with different organizations, and with special focus on health and nutrition. She will discuss the differences between working in a small and low-budget Swedish NGO responsible for all details in the program, and as a program manager in the American NGO Save the Children. She will also share with students what it is like to be an advisor at the government level and finally to work as an independent consultant.

27 January

Friederike Röder, Director, One, Paris, France

How to achieve policy change? ONE’s approach to advocacy

Friederike Röder earned her degree in political science from Sciences Po Paris and Freie Universität Berlin. Since then, she has worked in development: first within the OECD on good governance and fragile states, then as a technical advisor on the same matters to the German ministry of development cooperation. She then moved to South Africa to work with institutions of the African Union, most notably the Pan-African Parliament. Upon her return to Europe, she joined the Arab Reform Initiative, a think tank working on political reforms in North Africa and the Middle East. Other initiatives she was involved with include the German President’s Initiative for a Partnership with Africa and the European Former Leaders’ Group mediating in the Israel-Palestine conflict. She has been with ONE since April 2011, first as advocacy and policy manager and since November 2013 as director.

10 February

Following his Masters in Psychology of Culture and Religion, Menno Ettemamoved to the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel. He became involved in various initiatives for dialogue, community engagement and against gender based discrimination. He continued in the field of peace building as the International Coordinator of a network of Youth-led peace organisations active in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latina America.

Since 2010 Menno has worked for the Council of Europe as Educational Advisor. He is responsible for implementing various Human Rights Education (HRE) programmes and projects that aim to promote Democratic Youth Participation (DYP) across Europe. He works with a range of youth organisations, federations and networks, focusing on young refugees, youth from conflict affected regions, youth with disabilities and LGBT youth.

24 February

17 March

Henrik Dahlström Wilson, Sustainability Manager, Ikea, Helsingborg

Business driven sustainable development

Sustainable development in business is easy said in theory but harder to manage in practice. The seminar will touch upon the challenges you face as a CSR practitioner in a business environment and try to answer the question on how to be successful in implementing sustainability in daily business.

In his current position Henrik Wilson is responsible for implementing the IKEA sustainability agenda in purchase of non-home furnishing products and services. Henrik has been a CSR practitioner for more than 10 years. Prior to joining IKEA he held the positions as Responsible Sourcing Director at Electrolux and CSR consultant at KPMG.

24 March

Joakim Anger, Consultant

The Role of Consultants in International Development - Personal reflections from 15 years in the business

7 April

Where Paper Tigers Fight a Complex Reality - dispute settlement in the context of certification schemes

Eva Schmitz is a Policy Advisor and Senior Project Manager for the Dutch development and environmental NGO, Both ENDS. With a specialisation in Latin America, she has been working for the past 8 years in various developmental NGOs. The main focus of her work lies in tackling the social and environmental issues connected to the production of large-scale agricultural commodities such as palm oil, soy and sugar cane. Although also working with certification organisations and round tables, her main efforts go towards supporting local civil society organisations and affected communities in producing countries. Her second field of expertise is young leadership development, as she is also in charge of managing a small-grant fund for young environmental leaders, the JWH Initiative.

22 April (Tuesday!!)

Dreeni Geer is the Country Director for War Child Canada in Uganda where she leads the implementation of Access to Justice programs for conflict-affected women and children. A lawyer by education, she has worked in International Human Rights and Development for over 15 years in countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Canada and Sweden for local, national and international organizations. Dreeni Geer has written and edited various publications and keynoted community and professional events. As an immigrant to Canada from Guyana residing in Uganda, she is also personally interested in migration, integration and globalization.

5 May - panel on Human Rights Advocacy

Lillian Solheim (1979) holds an MA in International Relations from University of Kent at Brussels and a BA in Comparative Politics from the University of Bergen. She previously worked as a Network and Programme Coordinator at United Network of Young Peacebuilders and has experience from various NGOs and international organisations. She is Project Manager for the EEA financial mechanisms and NGO funds at the Norwegian Helsinki Committee since 2012.

Anna Innocenti has been an International Advocacy Officer at the Human Rights House Foundation since January 2013. She is responsible for advocacy at the United Nations, including the Human Rights Council and the Treaty Bodies System in Geneva and the General Assembly in New York. The geographical area of intervention includes Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the South Caucasus. Prior to this position, Anna has been working from 2007-2011 at the Dutch organization Global Human Rights Defence as a project manager within the field of human rights.

20 May (Tuesday!!) 3-5 pm

Cristiana Conte, Programme Officer Latin America at Plan UK

Promoting women’s rights in international development: opportunities and challenges in supporting women transform their lives

Cristiana Conte holds a BSc in international cooperation at the University of Roma Tre in Italy and an MSc in Development Studies at the London School of Economics in the UK. She has been working in different NGOs in Italy, The Netherlands and England. From 2010 to 2013 she has been a programme manager at Womankind Worldwide, supporting women-led local organisations in Africa and Latin America to work on eliminating violence against women and improving women’s civil political participation. Since 2014 she is working as a Programme Officer at Plan UK, where she is responsible for supporting children and young people’s rights programmes in Central and South America, with a strong focus on protecting the rights of girls

Cristiana will be talking about what it means in practice to work for the promotion of gender equality through a women’s rights based approach in international development. She will talk about the main interventions that she has found to be successful in the field to implement women’s rights projects on VAW and women’s participation, and some of the challenges that are faced by women’s rights organisations. She will describe what is in practice that she does in her daily job to&nbsp; support the implementation of these projects as a development practitioner. She will then give an overview of her experience getting into the sector, challenges she has encountered, tips about what she thinks is the most helpful and valued in terms of skills needed to pursue this career.